Automated Teller Machines, ATMs as they are commonly referred to or ABMs (for Automated Banking Machines in Canada), are devices which dispense currency to holders of valid bank cards and other identifying information among other functions. For ease, both ATMs and ABMs will be referred to as ATMs. The machines may also be used to dispense other negotiable instruments such as scrip, coupons, tickets and other items which are reprinted or may be printed to create high value negotiable instruments. The currency storage (used to describe storage of any negotiable instrument) within the ATM vault is accomplished in currency cassettes or cash cassettes typically holding up to 2,000 bills each. The cassettes are inserted into a rack which further includes a sheet feed and transport mechanism for picking and transporting the bills from the currency cassettes to a dispensing opening in the ATM structure.
The cassette rack is typically mounted in such a manner that it may be pulled out of the vault to access the various portions of the currency rack and bill picking and transport mechanism in order to permit the maintenance and repair of the device as well as to clear bill feed jams which may occur in the bill feeding and transporting mechanism.
Once the ATM vault, which is simply a secure safe or similar container, is opened, the cassettes and the cassette rack are accessible even when the purpose for opening the vault is unrelated to accessing the cassettes. Due to the security afforded by the vault, most of the losses from ATM's are due to insider theft. Authorized opening of the vault grants access to large sums of cash or other instruments and presents an opportunity to the person opening the vault to commit an unobserved act of dishonesty and steal some or all of the contents of the cassettes.
One approach to securing the cassettes within the cassette rack is the CashBar device available from Safepak Corporation, Portland, Oreg. The CashBar device is a large sturdy hasp mounted on one side plate of the cassette rack and engaging and covering a strike mounted on the opposite side plate of the cassette rack. The hasp carries a lock which accomplishes latching by extending a bolt through an aperture in the strike plate. The hasp is hinged near the attachment location. The hasp carries a vertically oriented bar or bar-like member extending across the face of at least one cassette which does not lie behind the hasp.
This CashBar device addresses the removal of the cassettes from the cassette rack; however, the CashBar device does not address preventing the rolling of the cassette rack out of the vault to provide for service. If the cassette rack is pulled or rolled out of the ATM vault to the limit of its travel, small quantities of currency may possibly be picked and partially fed from the bill feed mechanism and removed by an individual. Thus, there remains a security risk, reduced but still substantial.
The use of some device which secures the cassettes in the cassette rack so that currency cannot be removed is highly desirable so that there may be bifurcated or dual access to the vault but at the same time restrict access to the currency to only the organization responsible for the money while granting vault access to another organization to permit maintenance and service work without the service personnel having access to the stored currency supply.